Independent Pursuits: Bridge

"DRAW TRUMPS unless there is a good reason not to" is an old snippet of advice that still makes excellent sense. To which I should add: "Do not make premature claims." The by-play on this deal had an amusing side.

North opened One Diamond and South responded One Spade. North considered a "splinter" of Four Clubs in support of spades but his trumps were bad (it would have been a more attractive move if his 2A had been 4A) but settled for a direct raise to game. All passed and West led !Q against Four Spades. After winning in dummy, declarer led a trump and East showed out. "I am surprised that you did not double," he told West, exposing his hand, "You make your three trump tricks."

West studied the cards and, after observing "I wish I had," drew two more rounds of trumps. Belatedly South realised that he had two losers to ruff but only one trump in dummy. An attempt to establish dummy's diamonds failed and, reluctantly, South conceded one off.

South's first mistake lay in playing any trump at all. He can comfortably budget for three losers in the suit and, even if it costs a possible overtrick with a more likely 2-1 spade break, he should simply have set to work on a cross-ruff and let his opponents make their three trump tricks when they liked.

South's other mistake lay in claiming too soon, for now the defence was easy for West and, secondly, he was not barred from taking any finesse that he had not previously announced. As you can see, if he had not rushed his fences, he could have recovered with a diamond finesse.